100 Random Thoughts..

...typed as they come.


1. So I’m going to do the 100 thoughts thing again.
2. It was pretty popular last time, and Jessica did it again and reminded me.
3. She’s really witty.
4. I’m worried that I only HAVE 100 thoughts total, so won’t have much to write.
5. And it might be like trying to remake...hm.
6. Can’t think of famous movie with bad remake.
7. See, have lost mojo already.
8. Oceans 11!
9. No, what am I thinking, I really liked that film. Hello, George Clooney. And good day to you, Matthew Damon.
10. The Italian Job. Not a patch on the Michael Caine version.
11. There you go.
12. People were saying Obama had lost his mojo too, and now look.
13. Health reform=Change, suckas!
14. That wasn’t very gracious of me now, was it?
15. But I do think that a few years from now most people will wonder what all the fuss was about.
16. So now health reform has passed, what would be next on the list of my personal priorities for change in the US?
17. Besides, you know, ending poverty.
18. And war.
19. And...actually, I think it would be plug sockets.
20. Mind did a little spark just now when I plugged in my laptop.
21. I hate it when it does that. Scares me to death. I want switches, like on the British ones.
22. And then America would be perfect.
23. Well, I could probably think of a few more things--ending strip malls, etc.
24. But I’d be digging.
25. Enough with politics!
26. Hmm.
27. “Give a man...ten thousand...”
28. That’s a song we’re learning in Citrine.
29. “Give a man...ten thousand...words.”
30. It ain’t easy.
31. And the general opinion seems to be that it sounds like cats being tortured.
32. But I rather like it.
33. Though I’m not sure that I believe the thesis, which is that if you give a man the said ten thousand words, he will write you a love song. You could give some of the men I know the Oxford English Dictionary, Encyclopaedia Britannica, and the collected words of Shakespeare, and you wouldn’t get a Valentine’s Day card out of them.
34. I actually like all the songs we’re singing. Fun rhythms and melodies.
35. Rhythms is a hard word to spell.
36. And I’m an excellent speller.
37. Which is kind of a useless gift in the era of spell check.
38. I find quite a few of my gifts are wasted on my current era.
39. Like having really white skin.
40. It would have been highly valued back in the 19th Century.
41. Now it’s just a risk factor for skin cancer.
42. And being able to embroider.
43. And...well, maybe that’s it. Oh, I like to read aloud. Not that I have a gift for it, but they didn’t have TV back then, so I bet people got sick of reading aloud.
44. Course, I don’t have a TV now.
45. Not yet. Maybe soon. It's my current dilemma. Everything I want to watch is online anyway.
46. It’s just if I want to watch something with someone else.
47. Which happens, what, once a year.
48. And my current, pretty much inoperable, TV doesn’t look pretty.
49. Which, let’s be honest, is probably a more pertinent factor in my desire for a new one.
50. Ooh, halfway there.
51. I brimmeth o’er with thought, apparently.
52. “oooooooh,,,,ah.” (More “Love Song”)
53. I’m up late again. Bad habit.
54. I heard that Margaret Thatcher only needed about 4 hours of sleep per night or something insane.
55. I wish I could get away with that little sleep. Except I LIKE to sleep and relax.
56. But things have been so busy lately, that I could use the extra time. And it wouldn’t kill me to make it into work on time once this month.
57. And then the silly people messing up my order at [business name redacted] means I’ll be running errands tomorrow in any spare seconds I have.
58. I posted something on Facebook to do with that, about wanting to write a scathing letter, and I think people overestimated my rage level.
59. Wasn’t planning on going postal, just a little indignant.
60. I think Facebook, although a time suck, is actually a positive thing socially.
61. Apart from people feeling left out if they know they’re not invited to parties and all that.
62. And the occasional person writing indiscreet or passive aggressive things on their walls.
63. But I actually have been in meaningful contact with some people I really like and probably wouldn’t have had meaningful contact with otherwise.
64. And really, even if it’s just a frivolous time suck, it’s a fun one.
65. Sleeeeeeepy.
66. Maybe I don’t have as many thoughts as I thought.
67. I can’t wait for vacation.
68. And hanging out with my peeps.
69. And ordering myself new shoes for my birthday.
70. This selfish buying-stuff-for-one’s-own-birthday thing probably contributes to the decline of Western civilization.
71. But at least I’ll be well shod when picking through the rubble!
72. So it’s been over a week since I spent most of my Saturday in purchasing and installing a new light fitting, and I still don’t like it.
73. So I think I’m going to forget searching online for something special and get something simple and cheap from Ikea.
74. And count this one as a $70 Learning Experience.
75. I must say I’m pretty proud of myself for installing the dratted thing.
76. Because it baint be easy, and don’t you be fergitting it.
77. (Not sure why the random lapse into country dialect. Lateness.)
78. Actually, installing the dratted thing twice, because I did it wrong the first time.
79. And so I do actually feel pretty confident about doing it again, which is good.
80. Except if I get overconfident and forget to turn the breaker off, which would be bad.
81. Very bad. Mustn’t forget.
82. “No I mustn’t forget. To say a great big thank you, I mustn’t forget.”
83. Random song flashback from Junior School assemblies.
84. They used to make us sing hokey Christian folk/pop. (It was a Church of England school).
85. I don’t think it made anyone any more religious, but some were quite fun.
86. I remember being alone in the house with my brother when he was doing some electrical stuff for my aunt, and he shocked himself. Scariest moment ever when I heard him yell.
87. (He was totally fine. Luckily.)
88. “Autumn days when the grass is jewelled, and the silk inside a chestnut shell!”
89. THAT’S how that song began. It was one of my faves.
90. Ah, Autumn. Actually, Ah, Spring.
91. It has been fantastic to have some sun and longer evenings, despite some minor complaining I might have done about getting up an hour early.
92. And I went on a bike ride today after work.
93. With my helmet.
94. You’d think I’d be mature enough not to be embarrassed about wearing a helmet on a bike, but I’m afraid I’m not. I think they look dumb, and I don’t like wearing one.
95. But am safety conscious so I do anyway!
96. I’m really glad Spring is here. The new year ought really to begin in the spring, it would be a lot easier to get into the mindset of new beginnings.
97. I wonder what this year will bring. Hopefully less crap than last year.
98. No, last year had a lot of good stuff too. Be positive, Lena.
99. Bring on 2010! I’m belatedly excited about it.
100. And now I have to sleep on that.

Be Careful Out There

So, I’m in the temple, and a guy I don’t really know brings a young man up to me, and says, “this young man is going on a mission to London--you’ll have to give him some tips!’

My first thought is “Oh my poor child, they will eat you alive,” just because I think London would be a TOUGH mission. But I couldn’t say that, and unfortunately my actual response wasn’t more helpful: “Tips? Well, I don’t suppose giving you a list of the best nightclubs is such a good idea, ha ha.” (must...not...make...flippant remarks...to baby missionaries...in the temple).

So then the guy sort of gave me prompts, like “I hear the Indian food in London is amazing,” and I’d say “yes, definitely, eat Indian food. Yummy.” But the trouble is, I'm a) in the temple and not really in tourist information centre mode, and b) I’m a bit vague on what missionaries are allowed and are not allowed to do, other than be alone with women (I remember in Italy one of the missionaries teaching Sunday school walked out of the room for a minute and the other one got all panicky--I thought for a second he must be really shy, and then realised...).

So of course all the things that come to mind involve pubs (can they go in pubs? Americans sometimes get confused about what pubs are. I remember later they CAN go in pubs), or musical theatre (can they go to the theatre?), or visiting other spots in Britain (can they travel?) and wanting to warn him about going out late at night in Soho, or the East End, or...(or actually anywhere, as he looks about my niece’s age), or remind him not to read the Sun. It is only afterwards that I remember nice safe, touristy and interesting things like the Tower of London and the British Museum, and the National Gallery (except they have nudes--can they look upon nudes? Actually, if they can’t they’re out of luck because they're bound to run into a starkers statue at some point).

I am so full of admiration for these young men and women who have the guts to give up their time and youthful frivolities to go wherever they’re sent to share their faith, believing that faith is something pretty exciting and important that other people might want to hear about. Especially when you know they are highly likely to be mocked or disrespected or door-slammed in the process.

I hope my people are nice to him. I hope someone out there is looking for what he has to share. I hope he finds his own way to the British Museum.