Tattoos, Car sales and evening plans

I'm hanging out at my parent's house for a while tonight.

Mooching a free dinner.

Selling my car to my brother J.

For exactly what I paid for it.

He's getting an even better deal than I did, because I paid for a few minor repairs.

But I don't feel right selling it for more than I paid.

It was sold to me as a gift of sorts.

And it feels wrong to make a profit on someone's generosity to me.

Apparently I'm also going to get to check out J's new tattoo.

I found out about the tattoo in a text message this morning, informing me he'd show me tonight.

It seems the king of impermance has had something permanently inked on his body.

I'm WAY curious to find out what it is that made the grade for permanence.

I'm still hoping to get my first tattoo later this year.

Probably to celebrate the 5th anniversary of my healing from depression

And then home, and staring at a wedding slideshow.

Watching a little television via the internet while I putter with the pictures.

And then hoping for rest.

Catching My Attention

The photograph at the beginning of this article. (And the article itself.)

This post at Drew's blog about pain and becoming whole.

This "To Write Love on Her Arms" post (and beautiful tattoo) at Ragamuffin Diva - the blog of one of my all-time favorite novelists. (I think I need to start working on getting that tattoo I've been wanting again - there's been a few awfully beautiful ones at Ragamuffin Diva these last couple weeks.)

Some Random Facts About Me

I'm in an odd mood tonight, and am quite convinced of the fact that, if you are to continue reading this blog, and understand me, you must have the following vital (if random) pieces of information.

• I love popcorn (though I don't eat it nearly as often as I did when I lived with my parents.) I can easily eat a whole bag of the microwave variety by myself. Easily. This is an inherited trait from my mom's side of the family. They eat popcorn like no family I have ever seen. The popcorn bowl at my mom's house is a stainless steel number, that my dad purchased at an auto supply store (I think the actual declared purpose of this particular stainless steel bowl, according to the auto supply store, is as a drainage pan for changing your oil). It's well over a foot in diameter, and there is nothing that makes our family quite so happy as when mom fills the bowl with freshly popped corn (of the non-microwave variety) lightly buttered and salted, and hands out cereal bowls (which can then be refilled from the giant bowl) full of the product of her labors.
• I am absolutely, first and foremost a bookworm. I own probably 3000 books. When I purchased tenants insurance for my home, I had to make a special stipulation on the contents value of my belongings to include approximately 10,000 dollars worth of books.
• I own (and am very proud to own) a pin that reads "Reading is sexy." Someone once asked me if that meant that I was sexy because I read, or that a guy who reads is something I consider sexy. My answer? Yes.
• I am sentimental. Most of the things that lie around my space, and look like trash or trinkets have specific meanings. I am also terrible (generally speaking) at throwing things away. This means that my space can get slightly cluttered at times.
• I am hopelessly attached to the seasons of the church calendar, though I attend a church that generally pays only a very little bit of attention to the seasons of the calendar, marking instead the most high, holy days like Christmas and Easter.
• I get ridiculously excited at the prospects of being able to attend a good lecture. There is a possibility that I can go with my dad to attend a series of lectures on the life and theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer next week. This is a thrilling concept to me.
• I would as a general rule much rather use email, or other electronic modes of communication, than pick up a telephone. There are certain people that are exceptions to this general rule.
• I am the oldest child, the only girl, and the shortest sibling.
• My baby brother dwarf's the other two of us.
• I do not generally dye my hair, preferring my natural color to those created in a salon. I do get red low-lights and blond hi-lights put in once a year or so. And I am currently contemplating a short, two-week, wash-out stint as a red-head - something I've done once before. Just as a little change of pace.
• I do not have a tattoo, but I really want one. I'm just working on finalizing the design with some artist friends.
• I do have a pierced nose - a tiny diamond-like stud in my right nostril. It took me a year to get permission from my office to have a piercing. I work for Mennonites. They can be a little up-tight about things like tattoos and piercings. I was finally granted permission with the comment that at least it was my nose. The nose was the least offensive of the possible facial piercings.
• Lately, I have cocooned myself in my own little world. I'm still recovering from and processing my travels. I'm mostly avoiding other human beings.
• Because I have cocooned myself, my social schedule is the emptiest and most life-giving it's been in ages. I'm kind of enjoying that.
• I find myself craving far more silence than usual, and slowness.
• I am looking more often for the deep things, and will avoid the things that don't suffice.
• I vote in every election, but don't generally have a strong opinion. I voted in a provincial election tonight. Mostly I vote out of duty.
  
• I have much stronger opinions about the American election process and candidates than I do about the Canadian process and candidates.
  
• I am a dual American and Canadian citizen, but, because I reside permanently in Canada, I vote in Canadian elections rather than American ones.
• I am working on some writing pieces for the blog that will have a great deal more substance, but really couldn't move forward on them until I gave you all of this random information.

Enjoy!

From my journal...

I was reading through portions of my journal a couple weeks ago, and flagged this bit to come back to. It so beautifully describes some of my dreams and goals for life - the places and things that are important to me, and the things I believe God has planted deeply within me.

It's from a journalling workshop I attended back in March. March 24th to be exact. Kim McMechan taught it, and while I can't remember the exact instructions for the exercise, the title of it is "Instinct".

I wrote:

I would live somewhere with lots of sun, but not too much heat. Somewhere where you feel wrapped in warmth. Somewhere kind of humid, because I don't care that humidity makes my hair curl - I love to wear it curly.

I'd wear skirts all the time, flowy things, and sometimes, just because I felt like it, I'd twirl like I did when I was a little girl - just to see what shape my skirt made as I spun.

I'd hang out with people who let the messy things in their life show, because that kind of honesty is beautiful.

I'd spend lots of time with people, listening, sharing stories, praying.

I'd spend lots of time alone, too, curled up in a blanket, with a cup of tea, slowing down to reflect on my day, and on the stories I'd heard while I was with people.

I'd find a way to see the world - all of the European history I studied but have never seen with my own eyes. Machu Picchu in Peru.

I'd live in a big, laid-back, coffee shop loving city, and embrace that sort of lifestyle for a while.

I'd pierce my nose, and get a tattoo.

I'd hang out in the mountains, listening and praying, and I'd spend time writing beside the ocean.

I'd spend more time with the friends you can just be quiet with.

Nightfall

It's getting late (in my grandma like world of weird sleeping patterns!), and I must be off to bed soon, but thought I'd do a little writing, a few snapshots of the day before I headed to bed.

I went shopping at the dollar store this afternoon. I bought something like 20 items, mostly things that I will need for establishing my own home, for around twenty-two dollars. That made me VERY happy.

I can now access wireless internet with my laptop anywhere in the house. Hello blogging in bed! Also blogging in the living room, emails in the easy chair, and facebook in the basement (to name a few).

I hung out with Megs tonight. We watched "Freedom Writers" and ate "sex in a pan." She drank coffee, and I had tea, and we buried ourselves under blankets (my basement is COLD) and had a great time. I really liked the movie. We were, however, both disappointed in Patrick Dempsey's character. So completely un "mcdreamy"!

Megs left a few minutes ago to work the night shift, and I'm heading off to do a little bit of reading before crashing for the night. Short work week this week. So good.

I'm thinking a lot about the tattoo that I'm hoping to get lately. I'll describe it here sometime. It's a picture God gave me a few months back, from some words that various friends spoke out over me. It's also becoming very symbolic of the place in life that I'm in. Rae is designing it, and we'll probably get tattoos (different ones) done together sometime over the course of the summer. (I'm totally wimpy, and have always sworn that there would never be anything that I'd want permanently etched on my body, but I really want this.)

On the whole tattoo note - can I just say that I think my generation is going to be the ugliest generation of old people ever? I keep picturing all of us with tattoos, and piercings, and those awful stretched out earlobes when we're eighty and everything is sagging all over the place. Hideously funny, I think!

Anyway, I'm off to bed. I wish the noise of the rain was there, like last night. It was so peaceful to fall asleep to...

Rainy Friday Morning, but the weekend is coming!

Well, we set a rainfall record here in Calgary yesterday, almost doubling the record that had held since 1969.

However, even despite the onslaught of spring allergy season, I could smell the freshness in the air this morning as I walked to the train, and the weather forecast calls for sun to return to us tomorrow, with nice seasonally warm weather by the beginning of next week.

I’ve joined the world of Facebook, and am finding it equally as addicting as I was warned it could be. I’ve reconnected with a whole bunch of friends that I’ve valued and had lost touch with over the last couple of years. You can find me under “Lisa Pippus” if you’re interested in looking me up there.

There is a very strong possibility that I have located a room-mate, and could be out of my parents house by the beginning of July. Those of you who know me really well will know how significant this is to me on a spiritual, emotional, and just general mental sanity level! I’m excited that it could happen so quickly, and can’t wait to see what comes next, since I also intend to buy a car in July. Hello independence!

One of my friend’s is trying to design a tattoo for me. I’ve always loved the stuff she paints. I gave her a detailed description of what I wanted it to symbolize, and she’s working on drawing it. She goes to Australia in a week or two, and is asking God for the design for her own next tattoo while she’s there, and maybe for one for me as well. I told her that if I was going to get a design out of it, I’d be more than happy to pray that with her too. She wants to fly to Winnipeg, to get the tattoo done by another artist she really respects, and, since she’s a flight attendant, if she comes up with a design for me, I can probably tag along pretty cheaply and get mine done too. How random is that? Fly to Winnipeg to get a tattoo!

I’m looking forward to tonight and tomorrow… hanging out at home (and doing some errands). My parents are out of town, and so is my youngest brother, and the other brother is almost always out and about on the weekends, so I should have lots of time to just enjoy being on my own. Very refreshing when the whole family dynamics thing isn’t something I have to worry about, and I have to admit to loving doing errands and stuff like that on my own. Maybe I’ll rent a movie, or maybe I’ll just watch TV and hang out. I’ll do some studying (two hours left to meet the goal for this week), and some reading, and probably some prep for the youth retreat next week.

I almost forgot...

The other thing that I'm excited about from last night is that Rae is going to see if she can come up with a design for the tattoo I'm thinking about getting on my lower back. I described the picture of it that I have in my head, and the meanings of the various symbols, the significance to my personal and spiritual life, and she's going to see what she can do. Since I've seen Rae's drawings, that makes me happy!