i have found the calling of my youth...I will be a dectective.












or a puppeteer.














or a cook. (thats my grandma)











or a hiker.







(bear with me, i have too much free time and a scanner)


now for a quick montage of my beloved late puppy, Lady.




























and a final shot of myself to satisfy my vainity.


As a very sophisticated and blase fifth grader (really i have no idea how old i am here) Disney World had no claim on my interest. I am completely absorbed in my book, having just put out my ciggarette in the ash tray I am hovering over, my straw hat hiding my disdain for mickey mouse. and my brother is confused.

today i put a pear in my purse to eat during my break at work. and it got smushed. all over my library book.

after work i called my Dad to let him know my plans and i caught my parents while they were talking to my brother and sister in Japan. They held the phone up to the microphone so i could talk to them (which didn't really work) but in my attempt to communicate I shouted 'I love you!!' in the Borders parking lot, quite loud so the sound waves could make it all the way Japan. My cry was so convincing and full of feeling that some pedestrains misconstrued my meaning and shouted exclamations of love back to me.

I have been listening to the book 'Sister Carrie' on tape for the past two weeks. It is a very long book and I won't bore you with the details of the plot, only to say that I am hooked enough on the story that I am going to finish wading through all twelve casettes. The reader is a woman whose voice I find kind of annoying, especially when she tries to do men's voices, I can't say what bothers me, but something does. The tapes are really old some parts of the recording are damaged, but I think the damaged portions are my favorite. One minute the heroine is arguing with her lover when suddenly they are underwater! After a few minutes the waters will subside, only to suddenly engulf them when they are parting in anger! What an unexpected plot twist! Then, in casette seven, there is an echo and each line is repeated by a chorus of ghosts, mimicking the reader's voice. It is so eerie and I completely loose interest in the story, turning up the volume so I can hear the secret message the ghosts are trying to relate through the speakers. In the pause between each sentence you can hear warped fragments of what had just been said and I get goosebumps every time. I wonder what casette eight will bring!

I figured out how to post pictures!! This is a group photo from Lexington, Va, where I met all the folks with World Harvest Missions that are involved in the summer internship program. Can you find me?

Trust walk in the snow--isn't it beautiful!

Today was a wonderful day off, I finally took care of lots of things that needed to be done, like laundry and taxes. My Dad was helping do my taxes, poor man. 'Daddy,' I would ask winningly (though probably more whine-ingly) 'What does this mean on line 8a?' In the midst of his patient explanation I will interrupt suddenly and snap, 'okay okay! I've got it!,' growling as I continue on with the tax form, 'Don't be so patronizing!' My grumbling would go on until the next problem, 'Daddy? line 10?' Basically it comes to this, even when I ask for help, I hate being told what to do. Especially by my parents. Its like there is a light switch in my head and when any kind of didactic information flows from my parents mouth I turn into mr. hyde-christa, having no patience or curtesy at all, lashing out like a crazed hyena. And then I get over it until they try to tell me to do something again. Thank goodness for reverse psychology otherwise my parents would have given me away long ago. My Dad comments that his 'revenge' will be that I will marry someone just like him (goofy, warm-hearted, generous, kind) so that I will have someone to tease, tell me what to do, and drive me crazy all the time. What a charming karma!! (love ya Dad mwah)

ha and i blog again.

It has been two weeks since I have watched children at church or at the lovely home of the Fergusons, due to spring breaks and such things and it was wonderful to be back with the kids again. At church I helped watch the four and five year olds instead of my normal one and two year old crowd. It is so much fun to be around kids who can talk instead of just cry and point and poop (though, do not get me wrong, the sweet babies have their charms as well) but i really enjoyed listening to the long monologues of these budding orators. The gorgeous weather drew us out to the playground where a boys vs. girls game of tag immediately commenced. I, new to the group, had no idea that this had occured, that the boys were dubbed The Bears and the girls Baby Cheetahs, and that I was in the midst of a fierce battle. I was just running from anyone who roared at me, which was everyone. An astute girl, named Emily, sensing my confusion and fear, came to my rescue. 'Don't worry teacher, I will scare them off for you,' and she ran off singing at the boys who had cornered me, 'Will you come and dance with me? Will you come and dance with me?' I was dumbfounded by the innate intuition of this girl who knew that asking a boy to dance would indeed scare him soundly and cause him to flee. And flee they did. (though later Emily explained that it was her great speed that scared them off and she was just singing to make me feel better. Still, the image was quite funny). And so Emily and I, in addition to a little girl named Natalie, formed a third coalition in this animal war, the Peaceful Parakeets, and we cheeped and tweeted our way around the playground, flying out of harms way when necessary.

At work a customer brought me a book that they had found mishelved in true crime. It was President Clinton's book 'My life.'

Tonight with the Ferguson kids, we danced to veggie tales (I have to buy myself a cd!) and played with a long cardboard box that we cut eye and arm holes into, at appropriate heights for both Haywood and Hallsey. Oh how I wish I had a camera so you could see their thrilled faces as they tottered about in this box, shuffling their feet so that they were constantly knocking themselves over. Ah, the simple joys of cardboard.

***for my previous blog a new acronym has been suggested Many Atrciously Retched Christa Hours, please note this improvement*****


so i am going to buy a digital camera and am very excited about the possiblity of having lots of pics to post on my blog. i am doing my father proud by reading consumer reports and doing internet research and all those things that smart consumers do. i think i am going for a canon.

Tonight after the store closed the phone rang and it was a customer who was outside the door demanding to be let in because her clock just read 11 and we should let her in because we closed early (which we hadn't, it was clearly five after) but she was really angry, hung up on me, and i must admit i was a little afraid going out to my car that she would attack me. she didn't. i was mentally preparing my defensive retaliation just in case.

I have to get up early tomorrow and have a crazy day, child care from 9 to 11.30, Borders from 12 to 6, and babysitting from 6.30 to 9.30, and i am not tired yet. but i think i must go to bed or tomorrow i will die. will keep all posted on how i survived my crazy day (which, really, is nothing compared to school schedules of the old days) but i am an old fogie now and cannot handle such demanding constraints. thank goodness I will pass a carribou twice in the day ( the coffee store, not the animal)

i ran 7 miles today and must say I am immensely proud of myself. and it was very hard. well mi 1 and 2 were good ( and hilly), 3 and 4 hard, 5 and 6 okay, 7 very hard. thankfully the voices in my head kept cheering me on. heaven knows how i will manage 8 next week!

ok i really am going to bed now.

so it has been almost a month since my last blog. an awful month. and i will say no more about it, but thank goodness it is over! and now it is April and with April comes glorious spring and my last month working at Borders! I love Borders and books and the people there but I am very very very excited about doing something new. And I am hatching lots of plans of what to do if I don't get the job I want (really! really! want) in Colorado. bicycle across the US. Go to South America. Teach engrish in Japan. Live in a tent in the woods indefinately. do nothing for as long as possible. or do something I am passionately obsessively passionate about. I like the last option best. Because I think March (My Atrociously Retched Christa Hours) was awful because I allowed myself to become isolated from people and things I love. I allowed myself to become overcome by mundanity. and I want anything but to be stagnant--peaceful, yes, stagnant, no. And I was so consumed with my own emotions and self, so consumed with the lies about who I really am, that I stopped seeking out People. And People are essential. I love People. And to all of you that still have People surrounding you and you don't have to go far to have someone to be with, to talk to, do not take it for granted, relish in it. because People need People.