Farewell 20's

Things that happened during the last decade of my life:

- Graduated from college
- Moved to California
- Interned at Miramax & Comedy Central
- Got my MBA
- Graduated from law school
- Passed the bar
- Worked at Michael's and Target while looking for my first legal job
- Got my first real job
- Got fired from my first real job
- Suffered through 6 long months of unemployment
- Went to Germany & Paris for the first time
- Found my second real job
- Suffered through my second real job in the face of a depressing economy
- Went to Germany & Paris for the second time
- Became an aunt for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th time
- Said goodbye to 3 of my 4 grandparents
- Totaled my beloved Civic
- Became a Mac user greatly opposed to the PC
- Learned to navigate as a single gal in the big city

Not quite the list I expected, but a good one none the less. If you would've told me at 20 that getting married and at least pondering the idea of kids wasn't going to be on that list, I would've laughed in your face. Funny how God has different things in mind.

Bring on the 30's!!

Today's rant is brought to you by the letter "S"

"S" is for Satan, and how he takes no greater pleasure than in distracting Christians from our mission. No, he may not be able to claim our hearts, but he sure can screw with our heads and create chaos.

The topic of the day is dissension in the Church. As you may or may not know, I'm a member of a small church plant in Hollywood aptly named the Hollywood Church. I haven't been with them from day one, but I've been with them for over 2 of their 2 1/2 years of existence. I love my church, and am so thankful that God led me to it and the people involved with it.

Lately, we've been experiencing our fair share of "disgruntled" members, and it's resulted in a significant flight from our church. In the grand scheme of the size of the church, the numbers aren't too terribly overwhelming. But because it's a good chunk of my very small core group, it's a significant amount in my world.

Unfortunately, I started to let myself get caught up in the issues and considered bailing myself. But then I realized I wasn't going to be "one of them." I'm not going to bail on my church because it's not satisfying my every need. I'm sorry, but that's just selfish. Do I have issues with certain aspects of the church? Absolutely! But I'm sorry, unless these issues get in the way of the gospel message being preached each and every Sunday, then they're trivial. Should they be addressed? Yes. But should they cause you to leave? No.

So I challenge each and every one of you to quit running from problems in your church and instead be a part of the solution. Pray, communicate, get your hands dirty. It's not supposed to be easy. The Christian life isn't a walk in the park. And I'm not just addressing the issues we're having at the HC. This goes on everywhere. Probably even more so in the Bible Belt than out here. Quit leaving Grand Avenue for First Baptist. Quit leaving Eastside for Grand Avenue. It's ridiculous. Quit leaving your church without fighting for it. You're letting Satan win.

T-Minus One Week...

...until Vacation!!!!! Woohoo!!!

I will go here....

And here....

And here...

And here...


That's right! I'm going back to Germany and Paris one last time, and I CAN'T WAIT!!

Oscars

Mo'Nique.

Christoph Waltz.

Sandra Bullock.

Jeff Bridges.

Kathryn Bigelow.

The Hurt Locker.

Avatar: All Techy Awards.

The End.

Politics again?!

You know how I'm always like, "I'm not going to talk about politics anymore," but then I always do? Yeah well, here we go again. I can't help it. I find it interesting. Good news though. This will be short, and I'll just post links to the articles I read. That way, you can check them out, or not. Your choice.

Palin Should Cut Out Hypocrisy

Why Dissing Palin Won't Work For Dems

As you've probably figured out from the headings/picture, they're about Sarah Palin. They're both editorials. One essentially pro, and one anti. Oddly enough, I agree with both of them. She may be the face of the new conservative movement, but let's be honest. There's not that much there to back it up. I faulted Obama for lack of experience, and I'm not going to let Palin slide for it either. She doesn't have much under her belt, and she quit the one big thing she was elected to to bask in the celebrity spotlight. On the other hand, the Democrats need to quit bashing her and wake up. She's connected with middle America, and you might just want to figure out why. Democrats have control, yet they're somehow disconnecting from the typical American more and more each day. 2012 is not going to be a good time for them if they don't do something about it.

Here's my solution. Republicans are dumb. Democrats are dumb. Let's forget parties and all become INDEPENDENTS!! Geena Davis for president!! And yes, that is a dated television reference. I'll let you IMDb that one.

A Church on Mission

A friend posted this on Facebook, and I thought I would share. It's a great 2 minute video on the idea of a missional church.

Dear Super Bowl:

Please let relevant bands/musical acts play the halftime show from now on. We get it. Justin and Janet screwed up. But must we, the public, continue to suffer. I'm sorry, but I don't care about The Who. If this were the '60s and/or '70s, then it might be a different story. But it's 2010. Did you hear that? 2010!! I couldn't pick The Who out of a lineup if you held a gun to my head. And that's even after seeing them perform last night.

And honestly, I don't even mean to pick on The Who. Here's a list of the previous 5 year's performers:

2005: Paul McCartney

2006: The Rolling Stones

2007: Prince

2008: Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

2009: Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band

Granted, they are all legends of Rock and Roll, but again...it's a new millennium for goodness sake. When was the last time one of these groups had a major hit?!

Bottom line, I don't want to see old men jamming to songs I've never even heard during the halftime show anymore. You know, unless they're paired with some current performers a la my favorite halftime show of Aerosmith/NSync/Britney/Nelly. Now that was a good show!

Respectfully yours,

Me

Hamm & Buble

TV Shows That Bring the Funny

What's this? Two posts in as many days. I'm getting better at this. Woohoo!

I figure I should post my New Year's resolutions, but for some reason I'm not feeling that just yet. Maybe I'll save that for tomorrow or later in the week. I'll probably have broken them all by then, so I may not even bother. We'll see.

Instead, I've decided to share with you a few of my favorite funny TV shows. I usually do a year end movie list, but I just wasn't feeling the movies this year. Pretty much a lackluster film year in my opinion. Now TV on the other hand, that's picked up some steam. My theory? We've finally weathered the effects of the writer's strike in TV land, but haven't quite weathered it on the movie side since those productions take a bit longer from start to finish. Hopefully the new year will bring a better batch of movies for us all to enjoy.

Back to TV. I think I'd sum up 2009 as an angry year for me. I spent a good chunk of time just plain mad. Granted, no one really knew this because I do a wonderful job of keeping it hidden. But that, my friends, is for another post. Probably a part of the NYE resolutions as a better attitude is definitely on that list! This is just a brief intro so that you know why comedies were a big respite for me. There are four shows that I look forward to each week because I know that they will make me laugh out loud and I want to share them with you. If you're not watching them, you should.

Modern Family
Hands down, this is my favorite show right now. It's the funniest thing on TV. It centers on one family comprised of 3 household units. The patriarch has remarried a much younger woman and gained a new step-son, while his two grown children each have their own spouse's and children. There's the traditional family unit of the daughter, her husband, and three kids. There's the previously mentioned father and his new wife and step son. And then there's the gay son who has a long-term boyfriend and a newly adopted Asian baby. Hence the title, Modern Family. The show is witty without being too highbrow, yet slapsticky without being too lowbrow. In short, it hits just the right combination making it my favorite show of the week.

Parks & Recreation
I love Amy Poehler. But after last season's lackluster premiere, I didn't have high hopes for this show going into its second season. In fact, I told myself I was going to axe it, but decided to give it one more shot and watch the season premiere. And man was I shocked. They found their footing and this has turned into a consistently laugh out loud show each week. It centers on the Parks & Recreation department in Pawnee, IN. Amy Poehler's character is a bit naive, but oh so passionate about her job. She has high hopes and works amongst a group of people who could not care less. Hilarity ensues. Since I find The Office getting to be a bit old, I'm glad there's a new show to replace the missing funny.

30 Rock
Remember how I just said I love Amy Poehler? Yeah, well same goes for Tina Fey. This is still the sharpest show on TV. Tina Fey's humor is just flat out intelligent. And while Modern Family has replaced 30 Rock as my favorite, I still have mad love for this show.

Glee, or more accurately Jane Lynch on Glee.
Glee is all the rage right now, so I don't have to fill you in on the premise. I love the music and the kids, but what makes me laugh out loud is Jane Lynch. I've been a fan of hers since I saw her in Best in Show. I think I would laugh at her reading the phone book. But in Sue Sylvester, she's found the perfect comedic villain, and she's given juicy zingers that have me cackling. I can't wait to see what comes out of her mouth when Glee returns to the screen in April.

An LA Christmas

I talked my parents into coming out for a visit this Christmas. Since they've pretty much been there and done that when it comes to LA, we spent a lot of time just hanging out. We played lots of Speed Scrabble, Dominos, and Scattergories. We ate lots of yummy food including a full out Thanksgiving revisited meal with turkey, dressing, and all the sides. After my roommate scarfed down all the leftover dressing, I even tried my hand at making a batch of my own. If I do say so myself, it was pretty delicious. And Christmas wouldn't be complete without some scrumptious chocolate chip cookies and Grandma's peanut brittle. Did we just sit around and eat food you might be asking yourself? Well, yes. I had to get in a lot of grub before I start that New Year's resolution of losing weight, of course. But we also managed to squeeze in a couple of other activities.

I've been working on this post for over an hour and it's just not cooperating. So how's about I just state that the pictures below are from the following activities. We opened gifts. Or more accurately, I opened gifts. We visited the Rose Bowl. We went to the Santa Anita Racetrack. Dad loved it and could have stayed all day. Mom and I thought the horses were pretty and ate funnel cake while we let Dad play. We window shopped on Rodeo Drive after all the shops had closed because it's more fun that way. We went to Santa Barbara and stopped in Malibu on the way. A good time was had by all. Hope you had a very merry Christmas, too!