Randomness

I sometimes try to come up with a title to my post before I start, for I often think I know what I will talk about. The problem is, it usually goes in a completely different direction once I start typing away, and then I have to go and change the title.

(I love the Northern Irish accent. Random comment, yes, I know. I am watching CNN international right now. I didn't know anyone from Ireland before I moved here, so I didn't realize how fun of an accent it is.)

Okay I was about to say that I have realized I am a very random person lately, and therefore the change in direction while typing away...and I have proven myself by the comment above. For some reason, most of my thoughts while typing end up on the screen. I seem to sometimes have too strong of a filter of what comes out of my mouth, as I do not make many comments in spoken conversations (now I did say sometimes, for at times they do slip out). It is completely the opposite in my written words. I can ramble on for ages...and end up no where. For those of you reading this...I hope you don't mind. If you do, you probably just won't read my updates again, so no worries.

Its cold in my flat. I just got home about 30 minutes ago, and I thought I wouldn't be up long enough to need to turn the heater on. I was warm from unloading the car and felt fine. Now that my body has cooled off...I am cold. I guess this post won't last much longer - I don't type well when shivering. I need to buy a wood stove. I have been meaning to do this for awhile, and now I am getting desperate. The problem is that I am never free my when landlord is, and I don't want to go buy a stove on my own. Hopefully in the next couple days my flat will be nice and toasty with a pretty fire blazing.

I had a great Thanksgiving day in my old city hanging out with old friends. I miss the international family that we have there. My day started out busy, as I woke up early (for me), threw some boxed brownies together and baked them before heading out for a quick coffee visit. Then I picked up some friends and we headed west driving across the country (a 1 1/2 hour drive.) I brought my friends to their parents house and drank some more coffee. When I got to the house where we were having Thanksgiving I jumped into set-up mode....and kept going until the festivities ended at about 10:30pm Somewhere in the midst of the afternoon I realized I never e-mailed my family or talked to them in order to set up a time to call or anything. I was not in my flat, so I did not have access to my American phone...and the Internet wasn't working where I was. The holiday came and went, and I did not talk to my family. At the end of the day, that made me sad. But I am happy to know that I will spend Christmas with them....then I will be missing all my friends here. And because of this, I am thankful today for technology. I love my work here overseas. I know without a doubt its where God wants me to be. But some days are harder than other to be away from family and friends. I can not imagine what this would have been like 20 or more years ago. I am thankful that wherever God leads me I will be able to stay in contact with those I care about.

And on a final random note: I went to a large store tonight and while sitting at the cafe drinking coffee with a friend (yes I spend most of my time here drinking coffee) I noticed Christmas decorations were already up. I was amazed. This is a Muslim country, so this usually isn't the case. It brought a smile to my face - I love the Christmas season. The wonderful thing is that it was not overly commercialized, just a bit of garland, some red and green boughs, and a decorated tree. Nothing big and gaudy. No Santa Clause. Now I am going to go listen to my Christmas music.