Saturday, June 26, 2004

New bed!

Woo woo! My Dad paid for a new bed for me after my friend and I went bed shopping yesterday. I'm getting a FULL! No more twin! :) It will be delivered tomorrow morning. The new bed is super firm like a board, just the way I wanted it. :) I can't believe I got exactly the bed I wanted! :)

The old bed died in a 2-3 year period, and the springs were already poking out. This bed has a 10 year warrenty. Hopefully it is better quality.

Tuesday, June 22, 2004

Are you Calvinist or Arminian?

Here are links to a couple of online tests:

http://www.hereistand.net/Arminian%20test.htm

http://www.allthetests.com/quiz07/dasquiztd.php3?testid=1076416296

I scored a 22 on the first test, and also came out Arminian on the second. :-p

These tests are too black and white, not allowing for middle ground.

And oh yes, both these tests are biased toward the Calanist side, with "Calvanism" being the best answer.

Monday, June 21, 2004

Murphey's in town...

And he brought his darn law with him.

I'm having a bitch of a day. And I've even been a good girl and prayed before bed last night. But some days, it just don't pay to get out of bed the next morning.

So I got into the City to check my P.O. box and my checks arrived. As usual, they screwed them up. I have been with this bank for 10 years and in that time they got ONE check order correct the first time. ONE. Every other time has taken two tries. So I go to the local branch office and tell them I'm not happy. I ordered Humane Society checks, not something called, "Puppies, puppies, puppies!" because the HS checks weren't available. Fine. Then TELL ME, by phone or even mail if need be. Do NOT order something I did not ask for.

So I try to order special checks with a Message on them (I have to look at these checks everyday - I like to look at something asthetically [sp] pleasing). They say they can't do the Message from the branch office and that I need to call customer service. Great. Moreover, since the charge for the messed up checks hasn't been deducted from my account yet, I have to take the checks with me and return them after the charge comes through. And oh, you can't take the check catalog with you; write down the numbers of everything and give those numbers to customer service. So I leave with numbers scribbled on a piece of paper, and the messed up checks.

I'm so (NOT) amused at this point.

So off to work and put in a call to customer service, who tells me they COULD have done the whole thing at the bank; it just required a call to the check vendor. So *they* call the check vendor and after about 20 minutes of explaining what styles and numbers and special features and all that junk, I *think* they have the order correct.

I can see this is going to be a bad day, so I have no idea what possessed me to call my ISP. I already knew it would turn out bad.

I try to get Earthlink to tell me how to set up a newsgroup account and we go around and around in circles only to have them tell me that it won't work because I have to be connected from my home computer and the work computer...well, evidentally nothing I can do at work because I'm not connected to Earthlink here. And I have no interest in accessing from home. I come home to sleep for a few hours; I don't actually LIVE there. (*gasp* The very thought.)

Add to all this the ongoing problems with Sutera on the Depression board. She is honestly more persistent than R-u-s-s. The Guide has set a 24 hour waiting period for people to post. This will give us a chance to recognize her names (she usually uses similar names - she *wants* you to know it's her) and have the Guide (Nancy) gag them. I do not expect she will leave. She ALWAYS comes back. Her life's mission is to get everyone off anti-depressants. She hates me because 1) I'm the only person willing to oppose her, and 2) my good experience with meds threatens every belief she holds. For these reasons, she attacks me mercilessly. She's been banned over three different TIME PERIODS (two years ago, several weeks ago, and now) under over a dozen (maybe two dozen?) names. So no, she won't go away. I'm praying that God will *make* her go away, and I don't care how, as long as she doesn't spread her lies on the Depression forum.

I've tried to guide Nancy through forum moderation procedures, only to discover that About doesn't allow many moderating options. Delphi offers tons more than About does.

And, if all that wan't bad enough, by body has decided that it LIKES weighing 186 pounds, and therefore I haven't lost an ounce in 3 weeks now. I'll go up and down between 191 and 186, but never lower than 186. And I've stuck to my diet! How do I get off a plateau?!?!?

Life STINKS.

Sunday, June 20, 2004

Why do I serve Him?

You know, that's what it always comes down to. I could talk about all the wonderful things He's given me, the unexpected blessings, etc. I could talk about last weeks' wonderful sermon and what I learned about God from it. I could rant about what He won't do for me or talk about feeling abandoned by Him, or unanswered prayer.
But that's all beside the point.

Why DO I serve Him?

Quite simply, I'm constrained to. Whenever I get to the point of wondering if I should follow, I recall Peter's words to Christ, "Where else can we go, Lord? Only you have the words of eternal life." That's why. I know I have nowhere else to turn, that my former gods aren't real and are certainly less powerful than Him. He may not always be the most loveable, but He's the only game in town, and I came take Him or leave Him.

In a sermon on the 1st of the 10 Commandments today, the pastor at City Church said something interesting. He said that suffering is where we discover what our true gods are. And he asked if we have ever had something happen where we wanted to walk away from Christianity. I had to nod. He said the thing that made me want to walk away is a god.

Tuesday, June 15, 2004

More compliments

I'm getting more compliments. A guy at work complimented me. He lost weight on Weight Watchers, but then went off the diet and gained it all back. He said I look good and was amazed at my weight loss. :-)

A couple Mexican guys at the mall complimented my hair and said, "Is it true that redheads have more fun?" My natural color is brown. I die it the brightest red I can find because it always fades quickly into something that looks natural.

Some people at Curves also complimented me that I am looking better. And I *do* feel better now that my endurance has increased and I'm not lugging around all those extra pounds. Still have 27 pounds to go to be in the normal weight range, but 23 down is an accomplishment. :)

Compliments left and right today. :)

Monday, June 14, 2004

This is just not my WEEK

Why does it seem that this is "beat up on Victoria week"? First the hell on Friday, then Sunday was just horrid. Church was great, but everything else went wrong. I decided to listen to my Walkman on my way to church, and the batteries died, and I had no spares. Then, while waiting for the bus to work later that day, I saw the bus drive over the overpass and completely *skip* the BART station where I was waiting! I saw him. If he had stopped I would have only been 5 minutes late, but because I had to wait for the next bus, I was 20 minutes late.

Then comes quitting time and no one shows up. I check the schedule and Neil is written in and then crossed out. I called the boss, waking him, and he said Neil was indeed scheduled. So I call Neil and tell him to get to work. So Neil gets here about 40 or so minutes late, and I miss my workout Monday because I had to sleep in from getting to bed so late.

Then a former employee comes strolling through where I work with a friend of his. He quit back in 1994 when Mr. Camping started making predictions of Jesus' return that consistently failed to happen. He asked me how I was dealing with the new "end of the church age" doctrine now, and I said I mostly tried to ignore it. And he simply HAD to go and make a statement about how HE wouldn't be wanting to help build Satan's kingdom on earth.

Good Lord, where do these people get off? I'm having a bad enough week without people *I don't even know* bashing my choices!

Aaarrrggghhh!!! Calgon, take me away before the men in white coats come to take me away. :-p

My pastor's daughter, take 4

Latest update. Aunt gets custody for the next four months, then another hearing.
Honestly, I don't feel anything good is going to come of this. I have never felt as hopeless about a situation before. This kid is going to have to really hit rock bottom before she's going to see anything, and I can only pray that she hits it fast and not too hard. I can really see her pregnant by the time she's 15 or 16, and hope it doesn't happen.

Sunday, June 06, 2004

My pastor's daughter, take 3

Final hearing is this Tuesday. Chances are that legal custody will be transfered to Julia's birth mom's sister (her biological aunt) because she won't run away from there. (Duh...there's no discipline. What child wouldn't want that?)

Saturday, June 05, 2004

Jack Hayford

Victoria's gone penny-costal. Well, sort of.

Pastors Phil, Steve, and Jeff who run the C&C Listserve (a mailing list for Christians and Pagans), were in San Francisco for a church convention. I have talked to them online, but wanted to see them in person since they were so close. I met them Friday afternoon for coffee, and as they were getting ready to leave for the last meeting (convention was over that night), they invited me to come if I wanted. I wanted to hang out with them longer, and it sounded interesting, so I said okay. Then they told me that Jack Hayford would be speaking. Gravy!

So here I was at the last night of a Foursquare church convention. It was cool. I could have done without the couple of times everybody broke out speaking in tongues, but the worship ROCKED, and it was cool to see Pastor Hayford live and in person, even though he looked like a dot on the platform. ;) There were live screens, so people in the back could see better.

Total unexpected blessing from God. Sometimes He can be okay. ;)

Ok, I'm still bitter

There have been some problems on the Depression board where I've taken a beating from two people who hate me, callme names, and just generally can't deal with the fact that medication might actually work for someone. *sigh*

Anyway, it's upset me a great deal and I didn't know why until I finally got down and dirty with God on Thursday night. The reason: I'm still upset over the EW incident. I wound up in tears begging God to help me forgive, asking Him why He can't do NOW what we studied in Sabbath School last week - Rev. 21-22.

Why am I writing this? I have no idea. Certainly nothing anyone can do.