Feeling Better

Hello, all. I'm feeling better though not 100%. Brain zaps are much less frequent, and I'm not as mentally fuzzy. Poor J. Apparently I became extremely distractible and spacey for a few days. This let to phone calls that flipped through 10 different topics in 5 minutes. My instinct not to post anything was a good one.

On the bright side, I was too tired to constantly over-censor myself and we had a very productive talk about religion. I believe that J is finally becoming more comfortable with my involvement with the LDS church. I think he was worried that I was being brainwashed or something. Once I demonstrated to him that I have retained my critical thinking skills, he relaxed. I learned that it's really hard to argue with the statement "I've really prayed about it and God told me [x, y, and z]." And there is a huge difference (at least in J's mind) between being motivated by God versus Church doctrine. Technically they should be the same, but it's an important difference for J who is having a hard time respecting the LDS church as an institution. And because he does have a good relationship with God (despite not being involved in a church) he has to respect any answers that God gives me.

In other news, I've finally figured out what Twitter is all about. Mostly because J joined Twitter, and I've been playing with my personal twitter account. So I will be updating my blog account more frequently. I find it's good for quick thoughts about church related things that are too limited for an actual blog post. I can also link to interesting blog posts or news articles. So if you're interested you can follow me at sunlize.

MIA

Sorry if I'm a bit MIA this week. I've stopped taking one of my antidepressants and I've been going through physical withdrawal. The worst is the brain shivers/ brain zaps. As well as the constant nausea, weird tingling sensations, inability to concentrate, and insomnia. Fun times. More on that later. 

Stick To It!

Hope everyone had a nice Memorial Day weekend. I didn't have to work this weekend so that's always a plus. Anyhow, I'm too tired to write a real post, but I found this cool site over the weekend. It's called stickK. You can read some news stories about it here, here and here. 

The basic idea is to make a commitment to something and set a time frame (i.e. Exercise three times a week for ten weeks). Then you choose your stakes. You have four choices: charity; anti-charity (ie the NRA if you are opposed to their doctrine); friend (i.e. your bff) or foe (your annoying little brother); or no money at stake. If you chose a money-at-stake option you are forced to cough up your credit card number so you can't go back on the deal. The idea is that if you fine yourself $100 each time you drink a soda/pop/cola, you are much less likely to drink that soda. To prevent you from cheating you can choose an independent referee (ie. a spouse or friend) or your can be "on your honor".  You can then invite supporters who can cheer you on. These supporters are also emailed when you succeed or fail with your goal. Knowing that all your friends and family will know if you've gained 5 pounds is definitely a motivator for sticking to your diet.

It's a little confusing so I'll show you what I did.

• My commitment: I commit to exercising regularly 3 times per week for 10 weeks.
  
• Stakes: $20 a week for 10 weeks = $200 at stake. I chose an anti-charity. 
• So for every time that I don't exercise three times per week, $20 will be deducted from my credit card and sent to a charity that sponsors a cause that I don't like. (Boo.) If I do exercise 3 times per week, I get to keep the money. (Yay!)
  

stickK is really quite simple once you wrap your head around the idea. And I think it's pretty clever too.

Certainty

This semester I'm working at an adult day care center. It's a great program. If I needed to, I would send my parents or grandparents to someplace like that. On Tuesdays, there are two slightly younger ladies (late 70s maybe) who come in and lead a sing-a-long. They sing all sorts of tunes that were popular when the members were younger. First of all, they are awesome because they come in for and hour and volunteer each week. Second, the lady who sings and plays the guitar can yodel. And she really cares about the members and tells them stories from her life that they can relate to. After she finished playing, she and I were talking and she said, "Well, I'll see you next week. Unless something happens. I mean, at my age something could happen and I'd be in heaven next week. I don't know when I'll go but I know where I'll be going." She was absolutely confident that she would be going to heaven and that God would take care of her. And I though about how amazing it must be to know that you are going to be with God when you die, especially when you are at a relatively higher risk of dying soon. 

Sometimes I think about where I think about where I would be going if I died in an accident or something. What would I feel if it came to 'do or die', so to speak. (Slightly morbid, I know.) I believe that I'd be with God again. I was listening to the Mormon Channel radio last night and there was a program on spirituality on death. The first story was from a man who was attacked by a grizzly bear. He talked about his thoughts as the bear was tearing into him. He knew that he'd be dead in a few minutes and he knew that he'd be going home to God. I won't tell you how he got out of the situation in case you happen to listen to the program but it was a very powerful story. All I can do is reflect on how amazing the Atonement is and how lucky were are to have the restored gospel; how important it is that everyone has the chance to accept the gospel in this life and the next.

Fire Photos

Here's a huge photo album that a member of one of the wards posted. It covers the whole event. I can't believe how huge those flames were. And the smoke! We are really lucky that many of the rare books were saved and that we have several members who are skilled in book restoration. Several painting were also salvageable. The Friends across the street graciously allowed us to use their basement for storage and fed everyone juice and cookies. Apparently Mitt and Ann Romney showed up at some point. The later photos show the extent of the damage after the fire was put out. Someone at our ward FHE spoke about how sad the Relief Society room looked and I teared up when I was flipping through the photos. I have a lot of good memories from that room. There was such a feeling of sisterhood there. 

The inside of the chapel is completely destroyed. It's actually unrecognizable. Very sad. They are going to rebuild, although they will need to knock down the steeple because it sustained too much heat damage. A lot of the brickwork is still intact. There were a lot of stories from ward members about things that were miraculously saved from the Bishop's father's scriptures (very valuable to him) to the rare books to important documents like blueprints and permits to fresh-cut flowers in a vase. So many churches in the Cambridge area have opened their doors to us for our meetings and classes. I'm really grateful for our community members, the firefighters, and that no one was harmed.

Church Fire

Um, so, apparently our chapel caught fire during the Sunday part of Stake Conference. And it has sustained "extensive damage". I was not there (because I was on a plane), but the girl who picked me up from the airport was. She said that she smelled smoke and then five minutes later the fire alarm went off. Everyone was moseying out of the building until the people outside started shouting, "Hurry up! There really is a fire!!" And after everyone got out (thank God), the roof caved in. They think it was an electrical fire that started in the attic but that's speculation. You can see pictures and a basic news story here and here. I'll keep you posted.

Edited 1:39pm: 

Pictures here.

Discussion at By Common Consent

I'm wondering where they're going to put the three wards that meet there (two YSA wards (LP1&2) and the University ward).

Edited 3:24pm

Longer news story at Boston.com

Wedding Bells

I'm getting married in 3 months!! 

The current plan: Getting married mid-August. 4 day honeymoon in Wisconsin (?). Move J into his apartment in Chicago. J starts law school. I fly back to Boston and graduate in Dec 2009. Then I move to Chicago to be with J and we can finally be a normal married couple. Did I mention that we've been living in different states for the last two years?