Guess who I just saw at Target?!

Awww, yeah!! Jealous much?!

Runyon Canyon kicks my butt!

Ah Runyon Canyon, a staple of LA, and one that I successfully avoided for the first 5 years I lived here mainly because I don't like to hike. I'm not much of an outdoorsy girl, and it hurts my bum knee. But then something happened. I let some new friends talk me into going. Little did I know they picked the insanely steep side for us to climb, and I about died. This was about 2 months ago, and I swore I would never go back again. But I broke down. I went again today on the condition that we go up the other trail that's not so insanely steep. And I'm happy to report that I survived! And I think I actually liked it! And I think I may go back again! I don't understand these feelings I'm having! I feel some weird need to conquer that silly mountain and not get passed by every skinny little thing in LA. So beware Runyon Canyon, I'm coming after you.

I borrowed a pic to show you the park. Basically you go from the bottom of the Hollywood Hills all the way to the top to Mulholland Drive and you have 2 main trail choices: super steep, then flat or gradual incline.

There's the super steep to the left. And that's the gradual incline there to the right.

Religion, religion, religion

The great religious divide continues to widen.

James Dobson criticized Obama yesterday saying he distorted scripture in a 2006 speech. If you haven't already, you can read the article here - Dobson accuses Obama of distorting Bible. I linked to the CNN article because that's the website I read daily. Naturally, all of the comments after the article are pro-Obama and anti-evangelical. I checked out Fox News, and as you would expect, the comments are completely reverse.

I love that religion continues to perpetuate this extreme political partisanship. And I say religion purposely because it's not Christianity, it's religion. In the one corner we have the crazy conservative (typically) evangelicals who believe the only way to vote is on the moral issues of homosexuality and abortion. And in the other corner, we have the crazy liberals who believe all Christians are nut jobs. And that's how it's stacked up - Christians v. non-Christians in a fight to the death. But wait a minute, didn't I just say religion is what is perpetuating this rift? I sure did, but unfortunately nobody seems to realize this.

People have become blind to the Gospel message. Let me let you in on what that message is in one simple word...Jesus. Here's the Old Testament in a nutshell - man sinned, God promised to restore us to him, keeping of covenant, keeping of covenant, keeping of covenant, then bam!, Jesus arrives and the promise is fulfilled. Does that mean we can no longer learn anything from the Old Testament? Absolutely not! The message of the Bible is the Gospel. The Gospel is Jesus. The Old Testament points to Jesus and that, ladies and gentlemen, is its purpose.

Who did Jesus spend his time with? The rich? The healthy? Nope, it was the poor, the destitute, and even some prostitutes (yikes!). Are evangelicals furthering the Gospel by living in their little Christian bubble? Let's go to church on Sunday and hang out with our Christian friends during the week. Let's always vote Republican because they're anti-homosexuality and pro-life. You're sure not a true Christian if you don't. But is this Christianity or man-made religious thought? My vote is for the latter. It's time for us to paddle away from the safety of the far right towards the left and hang out with those left-leaning liberals who haven't yet accepted the Gospel. To coin an overused cliche from the nineties...it's what Jesus woud do.

This has been a long post, so if you're still reading, bless you! I'll leave you with a passage from a book I've been reading called God's Politics by Jim Wallis. It scolds the right for getting it wrong and the left for just not getting it. I don't agree with absolutely everything Wallis says as he's a bit more of a passivist than I am, but for the most part I feel he is dead on. Oh, and by the way, Obama made those statements in a speech to Wallis' organization, Call to Renewal.

"I believe there is a[nother] option for American politics...It is traditional or conservative on issues of family values, sexual integrity and personal responsibility, while being very progressive, populist, or even radical on issues like poverty and racial justice. It affirms good stewardship of the earth and its resources, supports gender equality, and is more internationally minded than nationalist - looking first to peacemaking and conflict resolution when it comes to foreign policy questions. The people it appeals to (many religious, but others not) are very strong on issues like marriage, raising kids, and individual ethics, but without being right-wing, reactionary, or mean-spirited or scapegoating against any group of people, such as homosexuals. They can be pro-life, pro-family, and pro-feminist, all at the same time. They think issues of 'moral character' are very important, both in politician's personal life and in his or her policy choices. Yet they are decidedly pro-poor, for racial reconciliation, critical of purely military solutions, and defenders of the environment. At the heart of th[is] option is the integral link between personal ethics and social justice. And it appeals to people who refuse to make the choice between the two."

Get Smart

I was looking forward to this movie, and I finally got to see it tonight. I used to watch Get Smart on Nick at Nite back in the day and loved it. Thankfully, the movie did not disappoint. You can't really go wrong with Steve Carell, can you?! He's a funny guy. I highly recommend it. If you liked the show, you'll like the movie. Heck, if you've never seen the show, you'll still like the movie...you just won't get some of the jokes, which will be a pity for you. And you know what, if you haven't seen the show, then go watch it. It's one of the classics and shouldn't be missed.

Happy Father's Day!

I almost forgot! I'm a horrible, horrible daughter!! Happy Father's Day to my favorite Dad in the whole world. I hope you had a wonderful and relaxing day. I love you!!!!!!!

Size 8? Size 12?

Today I went to see Made of Honor. While I liked the movie, I was annoyed by one small thing. One of the bridesmaids was the "fat girl" and they played that up for typical laughs, which didn't bother me. What bothered me was that she insisted they order her a size 8 dress to which one of the girls says wouldn't she be more comfortable in a size 12. She said no, a size 8 because she was going to lose weight and fit into it. Again, the conversation is not what annoyed me, it's the sizes they used. There is absolutely no way this girl could ever fit into a size 8 (which she does in the movie) or a size 12 for that matter. She's more like a size 16 who might be able to squeeze into a size 14. It just annoys me that they make the fat girl a size 12 like that's some kind of a huge size. Stupid Hollywood and their stupid standards.

I couldn't save a pic to put on here, but you can see pics of the girl on her IMDb profile here.

My gripe about Californians...or at least Angelenos

The majority of them have absolutely no common courtesy! I've lived here for almost 6 years now, and you would think by now I'd be used to this but I'm just not. And for some reason it's been driving me especially insane the last few weeks. I'm not saying they are rude or mean, just that they have no social manners. No one holds the door for anyone. Rarely do you get a thank you or excuse me. They don't believe in the courtesy waive when you let them into traffic. No one looks at each other when you pass them on the sidewalk or in the store. Or if they do, they just stare at you. Just little things like that. I get that those of us who grew up in the south have manners instilled in us from a young age, but I like to think that deep down everyone has a sense of common courtesy. But maybe I'm just giving human beings too much credit.

Figures

Senate GOP blocks windfall taxes on Big Oil

I'm not saying it's the best solution, but at least the Dems are putting forth an effort. How not shocking is it that the GOP is just sitting on their butts. This is definitely one of the areas where I'm not in line with the Republicans at all.

$48.55

That's how much it just cost me to fill up my gas tank given the whopping $4.45/gallon price out here in LA. And that was at the cheap place. I got my car right before I graduated from high school, and I could fill up that 11 gallon tank for less than $10. Now I get that there's inflation and all that, but not that much over only 10 years. Oh how it will be nice to get a new president in the white house that might actually try to do something about this situation. Only a few short months.